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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Ventura Beach (Birthday) Party Half Marathon

I gave myself a super cool birthday gift this year…. ok to
be honest, I just used my birthday as an excuse. I ran the Ventura Beach Party
Half marathon last weekend, the day after my 29th birthday. I was
extremely excited to hear about this new race and especially excited that it
fell so close to my birthday (too bad they missed it by one day!). This race is
also part of the Gold Coast Run Series which consists of 4 half marathons, but
you only need to run three of them to receive a cool jacket at the end of the
year. Santa to the Sea is part of that series this year and since I was already
registered for Santa and this one, I went ahead and registered for the third
race which will take place next month. I’m looking forward to getting my new
jacket at the end of the year.

I’ve set my sights on Santa to the Sea as my goal PR race
for the year, so the night before the Ventura Beach Party I was talking over my
race goals for the next day with Daddio and we both agreed that I would just
take it easy. Well that didn’t exactly end up happening, but I’ll get to that.

Packet pickup was pretty easy, showed up, grabbed my stuff
and headed out for a birthday dinner. There was no expo on Friday when I picked
up, but there was a small one on Saturday during pickup and on race day. There
were a couple running booths, but most were crafts, so we didn’t miss much by
going on Friday.

Ready to party

Race morning, my parents and I got there an hour early to
snag one of the few free parking spots. We were actually surprised that the lot
didn’t fill up faster. The race started at the Ventura Pier, went out past the
Oxnard Harbor and back again. I’m not a big fan of out and backs, but this one
was hard to pass up.

The atmosphere at the starting line was very enthusiastic.
From my understanding, there werea lot of first timers there, which always
makes the experience more enjoyable. I started out at a comfortable pace, just
staying with the people around me. For the first mile I didn’t turn my music
on, just enjoying the sound of all our feet hitting the pavement and the smell
of the ocean on the breeze. I was already on a runner’s high.

Let's do this!

I figured I’d ride out the high and slow down later. The
pace I was at, was faster than I am usually comfortable with, but I was feeling
so good, I just went with the flow. The weather was awesome for a half
marathon! It was a comfortable mid 60’s with a marine layer and a pleasant
breeze. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day!﻿﻿

Around mile five, I was still feeling awesome, but worried I’d
run myself into the ground, so I started intervals of nine minutes of running
and one minute of walking. I ended up gaining a little speed by switching it
up. I felt comfortable, like I was on cruise control. At the half way point, I knew
I could PR if I didn’t hit a wall, but needed to be careful. You never know
when running high is going to suddenly disappear only to be replaced by a big
fat wall of fatigue.

Race picture around mile nine. All smiles!

I was wearing a “Birthday Girl” t-shirt and spectators
started yelling “Happy Birthday” as I passed them, giving me a little more bounce
to my step. Around mile nine I went through a water stop and a little kid
volunteer, probably no older than five yelled “Take the water!” I almost did
just to make him happy, but I had on my hydration belt and didn’t need any. In
fact, a lot of people had hydration gear, so the poor kid might have been
holding out the cup for a while!

Look at that fog! It stuck around the whole race.

Between miles ten and eleven, my heart rate started to spike
and a little fatigue started to creep in, but the clock was ticking and the PR
was looking really good. I figured if I could just beat my old half marathon PR
by just a few seconds, I would be on cloud nine. I’ve been craving a half marathon
PR for almost two years now!

I finished the race with a sprint and a goofy grin, with a
time of 2:03:19. I set a new PR, blowing my old one away by just over five
minutes! I never even imagined that I was going that much faster! My parents
greeted me with hugs and congratulations, my dad knowing instantly that I had
PRed. A friend from college also showed up to cheer me in at the finish line
and to tell me happy birthday. I’ll tell you something, if you ever want to
make a runner’s day, show up at their race and cheer them on! That’s one of the
many reasons my parents and my friends are so awesome!

Finishing strong

This race was a total thrill, although I am a little bias!
The volunteers and race support was awesome! The after race food and snacks were
plentiful and everything seemed to run smoothly. I only have one complaint and
that was that there was no official photographer (as far as I’ve been able to
determine). There was one person along the course that did take pictures and
post them, but nothing official. Some finish line pictures have shown up, but
nothing of me.

One happy birthday girl!

After the race, we went over to my Uncle’s house where we
shared a birthday BBQ (his birthday being that day). I ate too much and enjoyed
chocolate chocolate cake. Overall, great race and a day to remember!